Since last April's particularly ferocious tornado outbreak, a growing number of Alabamians have spent thousands of dollars on personal storm shelters that will protect their families during the worst of storms. Monday's storms revived that interest, shelter vendors say.

"We're getting lots of Birmingham calls," Carlton Guyse, the general manager of SuperCell Shelters in Morgan County, said Wednesday, after installing a home shelter in Helena. "We went from no inquiries down here to nonstop calls."

A shelter makes sense in a state that ranks so high in tornado activity and in tornado deaths, disaster experts say. Alabama's death toll from tornadoes since 1950 is higher than any other state. But Alabamians can take less costly steps to protect themselves and to prepare for a tornado.

The most basic life-saving steps include making sure weather warnings are received, having a plan in place for taking cover, and being armed with the supplies that might be needed during or after a tornado.

According to weather and disaster experts, families need multiple ways to receive weather warnings, because no single method is foolproof. Having a NOAA weather radio at home is critical, partly to make sure overnight warnings register.

A weather radio can cost as little as $30. It needs to have battery backup, and those batteries should not be allowed to fizzle out. The radios work when sirens aren't available or aren't audible, and when TV sets are turned off or not working because of power outages.

Robert Kelley, the environmental manager for Shelby County, said a NOAA weather radio can ensure you have extra time to prepare for bad weather. In addition to sounding local alarms, his is programmed to relay warnings for Bibb and Tuscaloosa, where any threatening storm systems are likely to hit on their way to Shelby County.

Some area retailers said they have seen an increase in weather radio sales since tornadoes last April that killed at least 248 people in Alabama and wiped out thousands of homes across the state.

"It's picked up since last spring," said David Davidson, the manager of the Walmart on Lakeshore Parkway in Homewood. Davidson said his store is ordering more radios in time for this spring, when most tornadoes strike in Alabama.

Alerts

James Spann, the chief meteorologist at ABC 33/40, said weather radios should be "the baseline for everybody." But increasingly, people can also sign up to receive weather alerts through telephones, cellphones, email or text messages.

Some counties offer residents those kinds of personal alerts for free. In Shelby County, no system is in place yet, Kelley said. In Jefferson County, residents can get email alerts by emailing JeffCoWeatherAlerts@warncalling.com.

Phone calls and text alerts about warnings are available from other sources, though not necessarily for free.

Subscribers to ABC 33/40's WeatherCall service, for instance, pay about $10 a year and choose whether they'll get a call or a text message about any warnings affecting the location they select, Spann said.

In addition, iMap WeatherRadio, which costs $9.99 to download, sends weather alerts through smart phones and uses GPS technology to send warnings tied to the location the customer happens to be. "It knows where you are, and can use the polygon warnings like a charm," Spann said in an email. "You can also program fixed locations."

Long before a warning is issued, Alabamians need to have a plan for what to do about it. A key is identifying a safe place to go, so that when a threat actually occurs, there's no indecision and less chance of doing nothing.

"Evaluating your safe place ahead of time -- and having one built if necessary -- ... may be the one most important thing that people can do to protect themselves and their loved ones," said John De Block, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Birmingham.

Shelter

For Susan Legate of Helena, protecting her family meant an above-ground, 4-foot-by-6-foot shelter. It was installed this past Wednesday in her garage.

She'd begun researching her options more than a year ago, as she made plans to move from a home with a basement to a home with no basement. But the April 27 storms cemented her plans for a shelter.

"I knew after April I wouldn't go through another spring without one," she said. Her decision was reinforced by tornadoes that swept across Alabama on Monday. "Those things are dropping out the sky faster than we can clean up," she said.

Companies selling storm shelters say Legate is not alone. Their business, which has been brisk since April, jumped noticeably after Monday.

At Valley Storm Shelters, the company that manufactured Legate's shelter, some calls came Monday from people who inquired after last spring's storms and now want to follow through with a purchase, said Tim Richardson, who operates the company near Scottsboro.

Thousands of Alabamians -- at least 880 people in Jefferson and Shelby counties alone -- also are waiting to install shelters once they get word on federal grants that will defray up to $4,000 of each unit's cost.

Legate considered that, too. But she said she did not want to wait even though the shelter's cost -- exceeding $6,000 -- was a stretch for her household.

"I'm a single mom with two kids," said Legate, a hairdresser who borrowed money for the shelter. "I'll be paying for it forever, but that's OK. .¤.¤. What price can I put on my kids' lives?"

Legate bought a shelter that bears the National Storm Shelter Association seal, which is a sign of its storm-worthiness. People considering shelters should look for models that have been tested and certified to withstand winds up to 250 mph and impact from flying debris, experts say.

Alternatives

Those without shelters in their homes should study their options and find the safest alternatives. For those living in manufactured homes, experts say, the only safe option is evacuation.

In Shelby County, community storm shelters are open in Vincent, Columbiana, Westover and the Pea Ridge area, said Kelley, whose environmental office includes the county's emergency management program. In Jefferson County, the current sites are in Trussville, Vestavia Hills, Bagley, Brookside and Graysville, Kniphfer said. A number of other community shelters in both counties are in the works through the same federal grants helping to pay for private shelters in homes.

If no shelters are nearby, people in manufactured homes should look at alternatives such as a relative's site-built home or a government building or church. The key is to investigate the options in advance, settle on one that offers protection and will be available, and know how long it takes to get there. "It's too late to come up with a plan when it's about to hit," Kelley said.

People in site-built homes that don't have a storm shelter should go through the same steps, even if their plan is to stay home. A below-ground basement usually offers some measure of protection, and if that is not available, a small room near the center of the house and on the lowest level is the recommended site.

But how safe those options are depend on how strong the storm is and how strong the house is. Homeowners have no control over the storm's strength, of course, and once a house is built, making it stronger isn't easy.

It's a different story when a house is being built.

John van de Lindt, a civil engineering professor at the University of Alabama, touts the value of hurricane clips, which more effectively attach roofs to walls, and anchor bolts, which help secure walls to foundations. Both are relatively cheap features that might not save a house in an EF-4 or EF-5 tornado, but could keep it intact in lesser storms, which are far more common.

The clips and bolts are easily incorporated into a house during construction, and van de Lindt said he hopes storm victims use them to build back stronger. "Most people think of a nice house, and they think of a granite countertop," he said. "These are things they could do for half the cost of a large granite countertop."

Existing homes can be retrofitted, but it isn't so inexpensive or simple, he said. Drywall would have to be removed to bolt walls to foundations, for instance. It would be easier to accomplish during a remodel, van de Lindt said.

Regardless, Alabamians need to know the limitations of their homes and take steps to protect themselves and their families, said Lindt, who installed a storm shelter in his home after April's storms. If nothing else, he said, people should sleep on the lower level of their homes when overnight storms are in the forecast.

That requires Alabamians to take one more step, and that is to be mindful of storm systems making their way to the state. Weather awareness is crucial, the experts say.

"When I was a kid, I never looked at the weather. The weather was boring," said David Hartin, the director of emergency management in Tuscaloosa County. "Not anymore."